Handful-of-Dice Adventure - The Desert

**The handful-of-dice adventure**

Take a handful of dice, one of each size, roll them, and generate an adventure hook. That is the premise of the handful-of-dice method presented here in order to build a desert adventure for your D&D game. Roll a d4, a d6, a d8, a d10, a d12, and a d20, compare the results to the following tables, and you will have a solid starting point for building a unique adventure.

The following handful-of-dice tables generate the basis for a desert adventure. Roll a handful of dice, one of each kind, fill out some of the details, and you are set to run a fun desert adventure for your players.

Handful-of-dice – Desert tables

Desert Character Quest Table

The Character Quest table provides four unique quest hooks to give characters a motivation to enter the deadly desert.

d4	Character Quest
1	Prevent the opening of an ancient portal to another world
2	Slay a creature that is terrorizing peaceful nomads
3	Uncover a mystical secret of the desert
4	Conduct a magical ritual to create a lush oasis

Desert Boss Table

The Boss table provides six bosses which the characters might face at the climax of the desert adventure. These villains scheme and plot in the vast emptiness of the desert. Choose an appropriate stat block to create a fun challenge for the characters at their current level. For example, the massive worm might be a dragon wyrmling for 1st to 4th-level characters, or a purple worm for characters of 11th level or higher.

d6	Boss
1	An ambitious wizard turned intelligent giant scorpion trying to build an empire
2	A recently awoken forgotten mummified pharaoh reaching for former glory
3	The avatar of an evil serpentine deity trying to grow to immense size
4	A massive worm set loose in the desert by a greater mysterious villain
5	A merciless nomadic warlord driven to madness by a demonic pact
6	A cunning sphinx which seeks the artifact which was stolen from it

Desert Minions Table

The Minions table contains eight groups of creatures which serve the boss. You can roll multiple times on this table to create multiple factions within the desert. Similar to the Boss table, choose stat blocks appropriate for the party’s level.

d8	Minions
1	Haunted cultists
2	Crystalline scorpions
3	Aggressive serpents
4	Mindless undead
5	Arrogant mercenaries
6	Opportunistic goblinoids
7	Greedy desert druids
8	Wide-eyed nobles

Supernatural Desert Events Table

The Supernatural Events table presents ten mysterious circumstances that make the desert distinct form any other desert. These events might have happened long ago, and adventurers today can see the aftermath of this historic event behind every dune. Or the event is ongoing and twisting the barren landscape as the characters explore.

d10	Supernatural Events
1	A powerful arcane explosion creates dangerous pockets of pure magical energy
2	An unstoppable fog causes aberrant mutations in the landscape and wildlife
3	Recurring hordes of demonic spirits leave a path of destruction in their wake
4	The gods themselves wage war, leaving huge scars in the landscape
5	Meteors crash into the desert bringing alien materials ans creatures
6	Portals to other dimensions open up underneath sand dunes
7	Atemporal zones manifest where time runs slower or faster than in the rest of the desert
8	Sentient sand storms roam the desert shaving flesh off of bone
9	Fiery eruptions from deep within the earth melt sand into glass
10	Primordial titans clash in the desert shifting the tectonics of the desert

Desert Locations Table

The handful-of-dice desert locations table provides the fantastical backdrop for scenes in the adventure. Roll multiple times to create a list of potential adventure locations, or to build a point crawl through the desert.

d12	Desert Locations
1	A former oasis the water of which has turned into blood
2	A cursed obsidian pyramid with a radiant beacon at the top
3	An ancient temple of a dead god hidden underneath a massive dune
4	A nomadic campsite of beast-human hybrid nomads
5	A cruel slave bazaar in ancient cave systems
6	Huge tunnels dug by an ancient titanic worm
7	A lively trading post built around an oasis
8	A mysterious whispering obelisk that slowly hovers across the desert
9	A sentient dune that gives prophetic visions to anyone crossing it
10	An isolated tree of the ancient elves who remains green without any apparent water source
11	An immense boneyard of the remains of primordial titans
12	A city-sized living desert crab with settlements and inhabitants on its back

Random Desert Encounters

The random desert encounters table provides ideas for scenes that we can run while characters travel through the desert, or challenges they have to overcome along the way to their quest goal.

d20	Random Desert Encounters
1	A group of camel traders is searching for their mule which mysteriously disappeared
2	Large desert spiders have covered the path in near-invisible webbing to catch prey
3	A swarm of scorpions is moving in an oddly regular pattern, they attack if disturbed
4	Giant vultures circle above a mix of freshly killed corpses and ancient mummies
5	A lion posing as a sphinx watches the characters
6	Scouts of a nomad tribe are trying to recruit members for their dwindling tribe
7	A sphinx guards the place where a pyramid once stood. The pyramid has vanished.
8	Slave traders turned undead are seeking revenge against those who killed them.
9	A caravan is being held captive by a brass dragon who is delighted to have such wonderfully diverse conversation partners.
10	A couple of cyclopes are in a heated debate over whether the sand has always been here in the desert.
11	The towering sanctum of ancient dragonborn regularly releases necrotic storms.
12	A crystalline cage of ancient celestials holds a tentacled aberration in eternal torment.
13	Orcs demand tribute from anyone passing too close to their desert keep which protects the only oasis within days of travel.
14	A pirate ship and its dwindling, diseased crew have sailed through a portal, and accidentally teleported into the desert.
15	An unmoving orrery holds a petrifying curse of an archfey, which afflicts anyone who tries to repair it.
16	A demonic mask hovers at head-height. Donning the mask poisons the wearer’s mind with gloomy thoughts.
17	A silvered ancient megalith repels anyone who isn’t a tiefling.
18	A orb with an eye-like gem in its center follows the characters, flying always at a distance of 120 feet to the characters.
19	A brazier holds the mad ghost of a human commoner captive in an ethereal flame.
20	A necromancer’s academy is looking for fresh corpses to experiment on. Either the characters can give them some, or they are asked to surrender one of their own.

Example desert adventure seeds

The following adventure seeds have been generated using the handful-of-dice desert tables above.

Characters are asked to conduct a magical ritual to create a lush oasis. But a massive worm set loose in the desert by a greater mysterious villain, tries to foil their plans. In addition, wide-eyed nobles fear losing control over the fresh water trade if a new oasis is created. Characters must brave the unstoppable fog which causes aberrant mutations in the landscape and wildlife, especially near the location the characters must travel to for their ritual: the isolated tree of ancient elves which remains green without any apparent water source. Along the way, characters must pass a path covered in near-invisible webbing by large desert spiders.

Characters must stop an ambitious wizard-turned-intelligent-giant-scorpion from opening an ancient portal to another world. Aggressive serpents serve the scorpion-wizard, who was transformed by a powerful arcane explosion which still creates dangerous pockets of pure magical energy. The ritual is being conducted in an ancient temple of a dead god hidden underneath a massive dune, above which a caravan is being held captive by a brass dragon who is delighted to have such wonderfully diverse conversation partners.

Characters must uncover the secret of how to put a recently awoken forgotten mummified pharaoh to sleep. The pharaoh is reaching for former glory with the aid of crystalline scorpions, and recurring hordes of demonic spirits which leave a path of destruction in their wake. The secret to subduing the pharaoh is hidden in a cruel slave bazaar deep inside an ancient cave systems. The mad ghost of a human commoner knows the secret but is imprisoned in an ethereal flame.

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